Food Waste

Food waste has recently started stepping out of the murky shadows of our collective awareness. Any quick search results for food waste statistics are as sobering as they are stupefying. Statistics, such as Australians wasting over 8 billion dollars worth of food per year are staggering. The fact that 20% of all the food we buy is thrown away is angering.  Images like the 450,000 rubbish trucks filled with all of our wasted food lined up back to back, bridging the ditch between Australia and our Kiwi neighbours three times are nauseating. When we waste food this way, it’s not just money we waste. Depending on how that food was grown, we could also be throwing away topsoil, water, native habitat and ultimately…lives.

At AFSA, we believe one of the best ways to waste less is to eat better food. If a friend gives you a beautiful, emerald green broccoli that was lovingly grown in their garden, the chances of it going to waste would be much lower than if you’d bought some old broccoli at the supermarket. Connection equals care. The more connected we get to our food, the more care we ultimately give to that food. Whether we are growing more of our own, trading food with friends and neighbours or buying food from local farmers through a CSA or the farmer’s market, we are rebuilding our connections to where our sustenance comes from and ultimately caring more for everything connected to that food, and when you really start looking…thats darn near everything!